


I Looked At You Like The Stars That Shined

by Rsbry_Beret



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fluff, Love Languages, M/M, Zoey’s POV, kind of a 5+1?, spoiler: they’re already together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:47:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23989129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rsbry_Beret/pseuds/Rsbry_Beret
Summary: There were three unalienable (inalienable?) truths that Zoey was absolutely sure of.1. Max was the best friend anyone could ever ask for, except maybe Michelle Obama, because duh.2. Python was the best coding language and anyone who says otherwise is a lying liar who lies, or at the very least someone Not To Be Trusted.3. Leif was the most annoying straight white man she had ever met in her entire life.(Rated T for swearing)
Relationships: Background Zoey Clarke/Max Richman, Tobin Batra/Leif Donnelly, Zoey Clarke/Max Richman
Comments: 26
Kudos: 86





	I Looked At You Like The Stars That Shined

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Mary’s Song by Taylor Swift

There were three unalienable (inalienable?) truths that Zoey was absolutely sure of. 

  1. Max was the best friend anyone could ever ask for, except maybe Michelle Obama, because duh. 

  2. Python was the best coding language and anyone who says otherwise is a lying liar who lies, or at the very least someone Not To Be Trusted. 

  3. Leif was the most annoying straight white man she had ever met in her entire life. 




It was anyone’s guess how anyone could possibly bear to be friends with him. He was an asshole, albeit a talented one, and a total slytherin- not that all slytherins were bad, but. Well. Leif was willing to step on people if it meant he could get a step up. 

Of course, part of it was just Zoey being overdramatic. She loved Leif because they’d been working together for forever, and he was part of her team, and it was hard to hate someone after having access to their innermost thoughts and feelings about their doubts via song and dance. That didn’t mean he wasn’t an asshole. 

And Tobin was even worse, some days. Sure, he was a complete computer genius, but sometimes talking to him made her want to dip her entire head in a vat of burning wax, just so she wouldn’t have to hear him speak. 

It was absolutely infuriating that they were both fairly good-looking. Assholes shouldn’t be allowed to be handsome. The universe should have some fairness 

She snorted to herself, setting her coffee down on her desk and pulling out her laptop. Who was she kidding- she knew better than anyone that the universe didn’t really believe in things like justice. 

She heard the elevator ding from across the floor, obnoxiously loud like it always was, and watched Tobin and Leif walk in the room together, chatting and laughing and looking for all the world like they actually got the recommended six hours of sleep while simultaneously doing Pilates and eating things like quinoa, and protein shakes, and maybe even salad. 

She hated them both. She hated them so bad. 

“What’s up, ginger snap?” Tobin smirked as he passed her desk, looking horrifyingly hyper. 

“Absolutely not,” she responded without even bothering to think about it. She was too tired to think. Everything was awful. 

“It’s a term of endearment, red.”

“You’re a term of endearment,” she shot back, too focused on her coffee to bother coming up with anything clever. 

“She got you there, babe,” Leif said absently from his desk, already set up for work. Leif was her new favorite. Out of the two of them. Let’s not go crazy. 

“She did not. Were you even paying attention?” Tobin glanced over at Zoey for a moment, like he was trying to figure something out, before turning back to Leif. “Babe.”

God, she would never understand those guys. Was that what guy-friendships were like? Were they being homophobic or were they just joking? Was Zoey overthinking this? She sighed for a moment before shrugging, going back to her coffee. It was too early to think at all. 

It was beyond Zoey, how Max had convinced her to go to a bar with the team. Including Leif and Tobin. He had just started talking about team building, and then Joan had overheard and said it wasn’t the worst idea he had ever had, which was basically the equivalent of an excited squeal from anyone else, so really she had no choice. She had to do it. As a manager. For work. 

It helped that Max had a really cute smile when she finally agreed, but that was neither here nor there. 

So they were all sitting at a table, eating potato skins and drinking semi-okay tasting vodka, trying desperately to talk about anything other than work and mostly succeeding. 

Max was saying something about Ant-Man and physics and chemical-whatever, but her gaze was caught on Leif and Tobin, sat together and a little apart from everyone else. Were they lonely? Should she reach out and invite them into the comic book discussion?

She watched as Leif put his hand on Tobin’s shoulder, meeting his eyes inquisitively and smiling broadly when Tobin nodded. She hadn’t ever seen him smile like that before. 

An hour or so later, she looked over to see Tobin and Leif leaning heavily on each other. The glasses in front of them were full, but Zoey wasn’t so dumb to think that meant they hadn’t drank any- she wondered how many rounds they’d both had. 

She nudged Max in the ribs, nodding over to the two of them, murmuring to each other something nobody else could hear. 

“Huh,” said Max. “Who knew they were affectionate drunks?”

“Yeah,” Zoey said, and nudged her leg a little closer to Max’s under the table. “Who knew?”

It was an hour after lunch and everyone on Zoey’s team was finally, for once, actually working and in the zone and doing things. She might cry from joy. Or exhaustion. Or both. 

And then the elevator dinged, loud and piercing. Like a church bell at a funeral. Or an alarm clock. Or something else equally bad. That elevator ding was a harbinger of nothing but bad news. Zoey might break down right then and there. 

She looked up to see who was there, about to ask what they needed, but all that came out of her mouth was a strangled “Gyuah?”

The pimpled delivery boy stood awkwardly, arms full with the biggest arrangement of flowers Zoey had ever seen. And her mom was a landscaper. It was honestly the most hideous thing she had ever seen, a mess of roses and sunflowers and daisies and a million other species in a million different colors. 

It was also about the size of a very large mini-fridge. A small-fridge, if she may. 

The boy shuffled on his feet. Yikes. “Who here is Life Donnelly?” he asked in his high, cracking voice. 

“It’s- it’s Leif,” Leif said, sounding somewhat stunned. All eyes turned to him, blushing fire-engine red all the way to the tips of his ears. 

“Right,” said the delivery boy, sounding wholly apathetic. He winded his way through the desks to drop the vase of flowers off on an overwhelmed Leif’s desk. “There’s a card. Have a good day.”

“Right. Uh. You too?” Leif said. the boy was already gone. 

Everyone was silent for a split second. Then there was chaos. 

“What’s the note say, what’s the note say, what’s the note say?” someone was asking over and over, and Mike was definitely taking pictures for blackmail purposes, and Zoey hated to say it but she was curious too. 

“Guys,” she said in her manager voice, which needed work but was still enough to cut through all the yammering. Everyone was quiet for a moment. She smiled at them, then at Leif. “Well, what does the note say?”

“Yeah, Leif,” Tobin cut in, sounding just short of sly, “what does the note say?”

Leif cleared his throat once, twice, three times, then quickly plucked the card out of the arrangement and opened it up. 

“‘Love of my life,’” he started, before flushing again, unable to keep reading. Someone wolf whistled. 

“For Christ’s sake, Leif. If you can’t read it, I will.” Tobin smirked, grabbing the card before dramatically reopening the card with a flourish. 

“‘Love of my life,’” he began, “‘I wasn’t sure what flowers are your favorite, so I got them all. I know you hate people at work knowing about our relationship because it’s embarrassing, but I’m kind of an asshole. I love you more than flowers can convey.’” Tobin blinked twice. He had a look on his face Zoey had never seen before, and had no hope of decoding. “There’s no name, so…” he set the card down on Leif’s desk, reaching around him. 

Leif was beaming, clearly just as mortified as he was enamored. Zoey couldn’t help but glance at Max, who looked more confused than anything else. Her eyes traced his jawline. 

“Wait,” Max said, breaking the quiet, “you're dating someone?”

Zoey was never going to get them back to work. 

“Uh. Yeah?” Leif finally said, clearly wishing he could crawl beneath his desk and stay there. His left hand was absentmindedly tracing the petals of one of the peonies. It was almost sweet. Zoey decided to take pity on him. 

“Okay, everyone, back to work.”

“Hey, Leif, can you stay late tonight to work on that timeline we need?” Joan asked as she walked out of her office. 

“Actually, Joan, I’m sorry but I can’t tonight.”

Zoey looked up, astonished, and saw most of her coworkers do the same. Tobin didn’t, just paused and smiled down at his keyboard for a second before continuing to type. 

“I’m sorry, maybe I didn’t make myself clear,” Joan said, slower this time, dangerous. “Leif, you need to work late tonight.”

Leif looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, smiling painfully. Zoey winced in sympathy. “I understand, but I can’t. It’s my anniversary.”

Joan squinted. So did everyone else, really. “I don’t think you realize how little I care.”

Leif smile strained even more, paper thin. “ I’m not staying late tonight. I’ll use my vacation hours if I need to. This is important to me.”

Zoey’s eyes bounced back and forth between them like she was watching a ping pong match. 

“To be clear,” Joan said, “You’re prioritizing your personal life over the launch of our product? The one that needs all hands on deck. The one that launches in two months. That product?”

Leif looked terrified, and also the most confident Zoey had ever seen him. “My relationship is the most important thing to me.”

Joan stared at him for what felt like an eternity. Leif’s hands were shaking minutely. Joan waited a couple seconds longer, then nodded slowly, walking back into her office and closing the door behind her. 

All the breath left Leif in a big whoosh, and his shoulders sagged like a popped balloon. Tobin was immediately out of his chair and by his side, saying something in his ear that made him smile. Tobin poked Leif’s hands until they stopped shaking, and then smiled big and happy at him until Leif couldn’t help but smile back, fragile but real. 

Zoey was kind enough to pretend not to notice. She’s had enough of those types of moments with Max to realize that some things should be kept private between friends. 

It was another late night at work, but at least this time Zoey wasn’t the only one. Maybe it was mean to think, but she was happy that her whole team had been kept longer to work on the project, not just her. 

It got a little lonely when it was just her on the floor. 

It was already ten, and everyone was exhausted. Zoey’s makeup had come off twenty minutes after normal closing time, and by seven thirty she had changed into the sweat pants she kept stored in her desk at this point. Max’s hair was soaking wet from when he poured water on his face to try to wake himself up (unsuccessfully), and Tobin had ditched his color-blocked hoodie two hours ago. 

Perhaps most concernedly, Leif was asleep at his desk for the third time that night.

“Is he okay?” Zoey finally burst out, staring at Leif’s rising and falling back. “I mean, I’m tired too, but it’s still pretty early.”

Tobin sighed, turning to look at Leif too. “He didn’t get much sleep last night. We- he was gonna make it up tonight but-“ he shrugged “-Joan.”

The silence stretched on. Just before it got awkward, Tobin stood up. “I’m going on a coffee run.”

Max squinted at him, untrusting. 

“We have coffee here,” Zoey said, confused. 

Tobin shrugged. “Leif likes the stuff from ‘I Like You A Latte’. I’m already going, so what do people want?”

Had Zoey entered an alternate universe? If she had, she wasn’t complaining. “Anything with caffeine, please.”

“Black coffee,” Max said, clearly too tired to muster up confusion. 

When Tobin showed up thirty minutes later with everyone’s coffee order somehow balanced in one hand and a bag of pastries in the other, Zoey was so thankful she almost forgot to be scared he had poisoned her coffee. But when she saw Tobin softly shake Leif awake, she figured it was fine. They were all too tired to do anything nefarious. 

She took a bite of her bear claw and moaned. Even if Tobin had laced it- what a way to go. 

Zoey was so, so glad to be at another launch party. She’d admit, when she heard SPRQ was hoping on the AI train, she was skeptical. But Jade turned out really well, and she couldn’t be happier to have Mo come DJ again. 

When Mo got there, he immediately told Zoey she had to introduce him to her coworkers. 

“Girl, as much as I love the constant dilemma of your choice between Dreamboat Simon and Sweetie Max, I think at this point we both know who you’re gonna choose. I need more drama. Intrigue.”

“I mean,” Zoey said, already leading Mo to her team’s desks, “You probably know way too much personal information about all of them for this not to be weird, but okay.” They got to the desks where, thankfully, everyone was still working on the last minute problems. Not that it was good that there were last minute problems, but- well. 

Her coworkers looked up when they heard two pairs of footsteps and Zoey smiled at them. “Guys, this is my friend Mo. Mo’s gonna be DJ-ing the launch tomorrow. Mo, this is my team.”

This was so awkward. Her worlds were colliding. Although honestly, when she looked around, it seemed like the only one uncomfortable was her. Mo was already talking to Tobin about music (huh) while Leif sort of just stood there and listened, nodding occasionally and laughing at all the right moments. 

Then, clear as a bell, Zoey heard Mo say “you two are such a cute couple!”

Time stopped. 

“Uhm. What?” Max said, loud, interrupting Mo. 

“What?” Mo asked back.

“Tobin and Leif aren’t dating,” Zoey supplied. 

Tobin looked at Leif. Leif looked at Tobin. Then they both started laughing, hard. 

Everyone was looking at everyone, perplexed and concerned and some other emotion, something between embarrassed and amused, like they thought they were in on a joke, but weren’t entirely sure. 

Eventually Tobin and Leif stopped laughing and Tobin said, “Actually, me and Leif have been dating for coming up two and a half years now.”

Zoey felt her eyes widen. Max dropped his pen, and almost his laptop. Mo started laughing, now. 

Leif grinned too, surprised. “We thought you all knew?”

“How would we know?” Zoey asked, probably somewhat shrilly. 

“We call each other ‘babe’,” said Tobin. “We’re constantly touching.”

“Whenever one of us can’t work late, neither can the other. Tobin went on a coffee run for me,” Leif added. 

“Shut up,” Tobin said, pink. “Like you didn’t love the flowers.”

“Oh my god, the flowers were from you?” 

“Max, we’ve been dating for two and a half years, yes the flowers were from me.”

Leif smiled and wrapped his arm around Tobin’s waist. In hindsight, they really were obvious. “I thought you guys were supposed to be geniuses or something? Mo figured it out in three minutes.”

“That’s because I’m amazing, honey,” Mo said. “And as absolutely hilarious as this is, I do need to set up for my real, paying job right around now. Bye-bye, Zozo.” Mo waved, still laughing quietly to himself. 

Everyone stood for second, taking it all in. 

“Hey,” Tobin finally said, turning to Lief, “does this mean we can make out at work now?”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comment or else I will smear peanut butter on ur kneecaps and it’ll stain the inside of ur jeans and everyone u know will start calling u “peanut-knees” and it will be humiliating for you


End file.
